Method of and apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like fasteners.



A. C. STENMAN.

METHOD or man APPARATUS FOR FORMING AND cuwcume STAPLE LIKE FASTENERS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.26| 19H.

Patented 0012.15, 1918.

pair I i eras arnr rare.

AXEL C. STENMAN, OF JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB TO INDEPENDENT BUTTON FASTENER MACHINE COMPANY, A

CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING AND CLENCIIING STAPLE-LIKE FASTENERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

App1ication filed March 26, 1917. Serial No. 157,302.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AXEL C. STENMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jamaica Plain, county of Suflolk, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of and Apparatus for Forming and Clenching Staple-like Fasteners, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for forming staple-like fasteners. My invention is particularly applicable, though not necessarily limited, to the formation of those fasteners used for attaching shoe buttons, and for the purposes of this application, I shall discuss it in its relation to button attaching machines.

In button attachingmachines as usually constructed, the wire, from which the staple is formed is fed through the eye of the button and then severed by a pair of spaced cutting bars which bend the wire into staple form and carry it through the upper to a grooved anvil, whereupon a driving bar mounted between the cutting bars advances and clenches the staple by carrying the staple points against the wall of the groove in the anvil, thereby turning the staple points toward each other. In a properly formed and clenched staple, the staple points are bent into mutual alinement and approximately contact each other. WVhere the staple points are not so alined, the staple is liable to work loose from the upper and the points themselves become impalements upon which the hose may catch and tear.

In practice it is found that the driving bar and anvil soon become worn and require repair or replacement, and until this I it is not possible to produce properly formed and clenched staples.

wear is corrected,

The object of my invention is to provide for forming and clenching staples which will be free of the objections hereinbefore pointed out and which will be capable of embodiment in standard button attaching machines as now constructed without requiring substantial reorganization or modification of such machines. This object is secured by the method and apparatus of the present invention.

The manner of practising my invention together with an illustrative embodiment .my invention as applied to a button attaching machine. In the drawings Figure 1 is an elevation of so much of a button attaching machine equipped with my invention as is necessary to illustrate its application.

Figs. 2, 3 and 4.- am views illustrating the successive operations of forming the staple,

Figs. 5 and 6 are plan and end views, respectively, of the novel anvil of my inven tion, and Fig. 7 is a plan view of the supplemental bending bar and its holder.

I have indicated at 1 the anvil arm of a button attaching machine of standard type. Fast in a bore 1 formed in the arm 1 is the shank 2 of an anvil block 2 having an axial bore 3 and a transverse recess or groove 4. in its exposed face. The arm 1 is so constructed and arranged as to position the anvil 2 opposite and in the line of movement of the reciprocable cutting and bending bars 5, and the driving bar 6, respectively, of the button attaching machine. These bars act to sever the wire W of which the staple is formed, bend the severed length into staple form, drive the staple points through the material, and, in such machines as are now on the market, clench the staple in the material.

According to the present invention, the wire W is severed, bent to staple form and advanced to the anvil 2 by the cutting and bending bars 5 as indicaated in Fig. 2, whereupon the driving bar 6 advances, and with the recess 1 of the anvil bends or converges the points of the staple, as indicated in Fig. 3. Instead of continuing its drive, however, the driving bar remains stationary and itself acts as an anvil while a bending bar 8 reciprocating in the bore 3 of the anvil advances toward the driving bar 6 and oppositely folds the converged staple points in mutual alinement, as indicated in Fig. 4.

The supplemental bending bar 8 may be a simple pin having a suitable forming end 53 and fastened at 9 a holder 10 and may particularly be moved toward and from the staple by any suitable mechanism. As here shown, the holder 10 is carried at the upper end of a lever 11, which is pivoted at 12 to the anvil arm 1 and is adapted to be rocked from any suitable moving part of the machine, as by means of the rod 13, whereby to advance and retract the pin 8.

As here shown, the holder 10 slides in a portion of the bore 1 in which the anvil 2 is mounted, and the inward movement of the forming member 8 is limited by the inner end of this holder contacting the rear end of the shank ortion 2 of the anvil 2.

Various modi cations in the form and construction of my invention may obviously be resorted to if within the limits of the appended claims.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Leters Patent is:

1. The method of setting button fastener staples which consists in driving the staple from the rear, in converging the points thereof to contact each other under said rearward drive, and in oppositely folding the converged points.

2. In a button setting machine, a staple driver, a clenching die having a converged bearing surface adapted to converge the staple points to contact each other and independent positive means for folding the converged. points.

3. In apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like button fasteners, in combination, an anvil and a staple driving member having cooperative surfaces adapted to converge the points of the staple to contact each other, and means operating independently of said driving member adapted to oppositely fold'the converged staple points.

l. In apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like button fasteners, in combination, an anvil and a staple driving member hav ing cooperative surfaces adapted to converge the points of the staple to contact each other, and a reciprocable forming device operating independently of said driving member adapted to oppositely fold the converged staple points.

5. In apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like button fasteners, forming mechanism, a fixed anvil, a driving bar cooperating with said fixed anvil to converge the staple points to contact each other, and a bending bar movable toward said Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

driving bar and adapted to fold the converged staple points inwardly.

6. In apparatus for forming and clench ing staple-like button fasteners, forming mechanism, a fixed anvil, a driving bar cooperating with said fixed anvil to converge the staple points to contact each other, and a bending bar movable toward said driving barand adapted to fold the converged staple points inwardly, said driving bar acting as an anvil in said folding operation.

7. In apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like button fasteners, an anvil, a pair of spaced cutting members adapted to cut and form the wire into a staple and carry it to the anvil, a central driving bar adapted to carry the staple against the anvil and bend the staple points against each other, and a bender movable toward said central driving bar and adapted to fold the converged staple points inwardly.

8. In apparatus for clenching staple-like button fasteners, an anvil, a driver movable toward said anvil from one direction and adapted to converge the staple points against each other, and a bender movable toward said anvil from the opposite direction and effective to fold the converged points inwardly.

9. That method of clenching button fastening staples which consists in driving the staple against one side of an anvil to converge the staple points to contact each other and in folding said converged points from the opposite side of the anvil.

10. In apparatus for forming and clenching staple-like button fasteners, in combina tion, an arm, an anvil carried thereby and having an axial bore, a bending member reciprocable in said bore, means for reciprocating said member, and a staple forming mechanism opposite to said anvil and cooperating therewith to form the staple, converge the staple points to contact each other, and carry the formed staple into operative relation to said bending member, said forming mechanism then acting as an anvil while the bending member advances and infolds the converged staple points.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

AXEL C. STENMAN.

Witnesses:

EDWARD GOLDMAN, CHARLES HARRIS.

Washington, 1). c. 

